The Fairtrade Foundation is opening up its membership to allow organisations with related goals to apply to join the Fairtrade Foundation. This follows the adoption of a new governance structure by the extraordinary general meeting in May.

'We are opening our doors to new organisations who want to become 'charity shareholders'. The Fairtrade Foundation is a dynamic, fast-growing organisation which now needs to rise to the next level,' said Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation. 'We hope that the injection of new agencies actively backing the Fairtrade Foundation will help broaden our influence and enhance the success of the last ten years.' The first organisations to respond to this opportunity are People & Planet and long time supporter Tearfund, both of which are in the process of applying for formal membership of the Fairtrade Foundation.

Other organisations that the Fairtrade Foundation hopes to recruit are being invited to a working breakfast in London on July 16, hosted by the charity's patron, George Alagiah.

The Fairtrade Foundation, which was set up in the early 1990s has, up until now, had a tight governance structure of a small group of six non-governmental organisations. Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange, the World Development Movement and the National Federation of Women's Institutes are all either founding members of the Fairtrade Foundation or became involved with the organisation at an early stage in its development.

The Strategic review process of 2001 determined that the organisation was at a stage where it could benefit from a wider ownership base. The new structure has been developed with the guidance of leading charity solicitor Lord Andrew Phillips OBE of Bates, Wells and Braithwaite, who made charity law history in 1995 by obtaining charitable status for the Fairtrade Foundation even though the benefits to the recipients were the result of commercial activities rather than purely from charitable donations.

'The Fairtrade Foundation has made a deep impression in its short life, and this change in its shareholding structure responds to that success by building a wider constituency into its constitution,' said Lord Phillips.

Organisations with a focus on development or consumers will be invited to become 'charity shareholders'. The Board will now be composed of four representatives elected by the original NGOs behind the Fairtrade Foundation and up to six representatives for which all member organisations can nominate candidates. The aim is to have on the Board a balance of skills, including commercial skills. In order to maintain the Fairtrade Foundation's independence, organisations with a direct financial interest will not be eligible to become 'charity shareholders'.

The Fairtrade Foundation has grown rapidly since founded in 1992. Sales of Fairtrade branded products are projected to double again in the next two years.

A MORI poll commissioned recently by the Fairtrade Foundation revealed that 25 per cent of the UK population recognises the Fairtrade mark.

In volume, the most important Fairtrade markets internationally are the UK and Switzerland, together accounting for a sales volume of 33,630 tonnes of Fairtrade labelled products.

Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) was set up by the Fairtrade Foundation and the 16 other such national partners in 1997 as an independent international body to certify and facilitate Fairtrade. FLO now certifies foods sourced from 360 producer groups in 40 countries.

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